ALPHABET USED.
124. Ever since the present alphabet of the Bureau of Ethnology was established (in 1880), it has been the author’s custom to use it in spelling Indian words. But heretofore he has written mostly for the scientific world, for ethnologists and philologists who either were familiar with the alphabet, or were willing to constantly refer to it in reading. As the present work is designed to reach a wider circle of readers, the propriety of using the alphabet of the Bureau becomes doubtful. Many of the author’s friends have begged him not to use it in this collection of tales, believing that its unusual characters would embarrass the average reader and detract from the interest of the work. Another system has, therefore, been devised, according to which consonants printed in Roman letters have the ordinary English sounds, while those printed in Italics have sounds analogous to the English but not identical with them. The vowels, when unmarked, have the continental sounds. When these sounds are modified, diacritical marks are added in accordance with the latest edition of Webster’s Dictionary. The sound of English a in what is indicated by ạ. The only diphthong is ai, which has the sound of English i in pine. One mark not employed in Webster’s orthoepy is used in this book, viz., the inverted comma after a vowel to show that it is aspirated.
125. According to this arrangement, the casual reader will find the Indian words easily legible. If he takes the trouble to consult this and the preceding paragraph he may pronounce the words almost exactly as a Navaho would; if not he may, at least, pronounce them in a way that few Navahoes would fail to comprehend. At all events, to the majority of readers, a perfect pronunciation of the Indian words is immaterial. Many white men, living within the borders of the Navaho land, converse with these Indians in a jargon or debased language which might be spelled in English characters with their ordinary English values. For example, let us take the word for hut or house. This is properly pronounced hogán; but the whites in New Mexico generally call it hogán, and the Navahoes never fail to understand the word as thus pronounced. In this form it is an adopted English word in the Southwest. The following are the values of the consonants when printed in Italics:—
d has the sound of English th in this.
g has a sound unknown in English, gh imperfectly represents it. It is the g of the Dakota, or the Arabic ghain.
h has the sound of German ch in machen.
l is an aspirated l unknown in English, hl imperfectly represents it. It is formed with the side rather than with the tip of the tongue.
s has the sound of English sh in shot.
t has the sound of English th in thing.
z has the sound of English z in azure.
c, j, q, r, and x are not used. The sound of English ch in church is represented by ts; that of English j in jug, by dz.